Road Trip
by sylph-feather
Summary: Three friends, a car, and the road ahead of them. What could go wrong?
1. carry me away from here

"I need a break from this," Danny says to the freshly caught ghost in the thermos. He turns snide— "why are you here in the summer, anyways? Now's the time for relaxation and stuff."

He gives the thermos a vague shake in revenge, heading down to earth.

"You know, we can always just leave your parents to it for a bit and relax," Tucker says, slowly. "Taking a break doesn't sound bad."

"_I'm _the one who needs a break— I don't see you getting thrown into buildings," Danny snaps.

Tucker puts his hands up with an easy chuckle, nonverbally admitting agreement. "It's stressful enough watching," he hums.

"But really, you think my parents wouldn't bumble things up?" Danny asks rhetorically, resigned to his role as protector.

Tucker shrugs. "They've been getting more competent as of late."

"Guess they _have _been harder to dodge," Danny muses, offhand.

Tucker frowns a little, but nods. "We should talk to Sam and our parents about it! I'm sure they'd be cool with some small thing," Tucker hummed. "Or well, not Sam's parents— maybe she could come up with some excuse," he added with a laugh.

"Sure, sure," Danny huffed, still only half in agreement.

xXx

It's a whirlwind of discussion and excuses, but soon enough the three juniors are standing in front of a rickety looking truck.

"Pack," Mr. Foley instructs simply, smiling.

"Road trip!" Tucker caws.

xXx

"Sam," Danny says, the pauses, once again eyeing her _giant _bag, then looking at his own— a bag small enough to fit on his back. "I don't think that'll fit in the car," he decides on, gaze comparing sizes.

"We _will _have access to laundromats, you know," Tucker says, hiding a snicker.

Sam glares.

Danny tops it off and lights the fuse with, "you know, you didn't have to bring the entirety of that grunge-goth shop at the mall with you."

xXx

One giant purple bag lighter, the trio looks proudly on the car packed to the gills with cheap food and supplies. Danny sits on a sleeping bag, easily reclined, while Tucker taps at a game on his phone.

"What are we waiting for again?" the latter asks.

Danny rolls his eyes. "Sam said she had to grab her _gothic cloak." _He sighs, shaking his head.

"At least her pack is smaller," Tucker hums. Danny gives a nod— and then Sam emerges.

"Ready?" Tucker asks impatiently.

"Wait just one second—" Danny says, interrupted by a moan from Tucker. The halfa rolls his eyes and chortles a, "kidding," before sliding through the back door, intangible.

"Show off," Tucker grumbles as he and Sam open doors _like humans _and get in the front.

Floating in the back seat, Phantom shrugs and helps himself to a snack without even opening the bag.

xXx

Twenty-odd minutes later, they are outside city limits and pulled over on a shoulder of the road.

"Huh," Tucker, the driver, pauses. The group stares out at the deep forest, silent. "Guess we didn't plan where to go," Tucker says, finally.

Danny guffaws a laugh, floating up in the center of the front seats to look incredulously at Tucker. "I figured it was just a _go where the road takes us _dealio."

Sam gives a nod, looking amused as well. "We really are idiots," she hums neutrally.

"Guess I can't be too mad at that, since you included yourself," Tucker huffs. "And well, it certainly can be."

"Put your seatbelt on," Sam sighs, shoving Danny's white head of hair to the back.

He waves her off, making a show of tilting in the air of the back seat, above the things they've packed. The car gives a short wheeze, bumping Danny's back as it begins to drive and he remains stationary, in the air.

It rolls out onto the road, surrounded by the lush green of the East. And so they drive.


	2. water is (after)life

The first thing of interest— a sign marking _Amity Reservoir_, _5 miles. _

"Wanna stop?" Tucker hums, shifting the car into the next lane.

"There's lakes _everywhere _in Minnesota," Sam groans, while Danny (ever the neutral party and uncommitted teen) merely shrugs.

Tucker makes to shift out of the closest lane— but then Sam barks a sharp, "wait!" Danny shifts forwards to see a determined light in her eyes as she murmurs, "go."

Tucker gives a laugh, putting a hand up in mock surrender to the demand, and using the other to smoothly flow back into the lane.

"What made you change your mind?" Danny hums, shifting back into Fenton in preparation for getting out of the car and its safely tinted windows.

"No," she snaps at the rings of light, a snide smile on her face and that same flame still in her eyes. "Stay Phantom. You'll see."

Danny huffs, but shrugs and turns right back, figuring there'd be nobody at the reservoir anyways.

xXx

"You don't have to breathe as Phantom, right?" Sam hums.

Danny shrugs noncommittally. "I guess," he agrees— he knows to be a _yes, _but Sam's weirdness is throwing him off.

Tucker glances at Sam, then at Danny. "What does that have to do with anything?"

Danny just shrugs again, opens his mouth to say something along the lines of _don't know, _but Sam interrupts with an eager, "I want you to go to the bottom of the reservoir. _Please." _

Danny blinks. Sam practically _never _said please. He squints, then— "you owe me one."

She squints. "I thought I already owed you one since your whole overshadowing trick to make my parents think I'm away at some politeness camp?"

"Yeah, our deal is only one big I-O-U at a time," Tucker reminds. "Anyways, Sam, _why _do you—"

Danny cuts in— "No, remember, she agreed to delete _that _blackmail, remember?" Danny pauses. "Didn't think you would forget, Tuck. It helped _you_, too."

Tucker remembers the _cuddling _photos. "Ah… sweet repressed memories. Thank you, Danny. But seriously, Sam, _why?" _

Danny answers again before she can. "Who _cares_ why? I've got an I-O-U from Sam, and that like, _never _happens."

Sam snorts, obviously displeased, but sighs. "I want to see what's at the bottom of the reservoir," she says, passing him a camera.

"Waterproof?" Danny murmurs, turning the thing over in his hands, and Sam nods.

"But it's probably just fish," Tucker huffs, unimpressed.

Sam grins. "Nothing's _just _anything in Amity."

Tucker gives a sigh, placing a hand on his head over his beret. "Why is this our lives," he huffs rhetorically, not denying Sam's statement.

Danny shrugs, grinning. "You guys can walk around. It'll probably take a few minutes to scope the thing out," he hums. His first step into the reservoir gets a shudder as he slides, and a murmured, "slimy. You _so _owe me one, Sam." And with that, he slides under, legs turning wispy as he takes a dive.

"Even if he doesn't find anything, him being in a slimy lake makes it worth it," Sam tells Tucker.

"Win-win," he hums, pocketing his phone that he'd used to take a short video of Phantom's slip up and disgust.

xXx

Danny reaches the bottom quickly— or what is _supposed _to be the bottom.

He looks at the swirling green water that continues _down, down, down. _

_I guess we really never have "just" anything, _he huffs to himself— then coughs instinctively as his lungs fill with water, a _weird _feeling despite their uselessness in ghost form.

He goes exploring.

xXx

Two whole hours later, after Danny has scoped out the _entire _reservoir (including the supernaturally extended parts), he emerges from the mucky ground right at the feet of Sam and Tucker, causing them to jump.

"That was a long time," Tucker says. He then jokes— "we started worrying maybe you _couldn't _breathe underwater."

Danny laughs.

"Find anything?" Sam asks, attempting to be casual to hide intense curiosity.

He could perhaps answer with a simple statement of _lots, _then go on to elaborate— the colony of lost ghost-sewer-gators, the litany of drowning-based ghosts, the entire civilization of mermaids, the giant ghost fish from oceans and tropics (and all between). He does not do this.

"I'm never drinking tap water again," Danny says instead.

**xXx**

**I'm going with Kaufman's (Danny's VA) approximation for this, and guessing Amity is somewhere in Minnesota. **

**Anyways most chapters will be like this. Short, humorous little things, some adventures, yaddayadda. If you have a prompt (for a stop, adventure, bonding, whatever), I love those and will gladly take it! **


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